NBA
What happened to the Timberwolves’ Brazil Twitter account?
The team’s Brazil account on X vanished without trace back at the start of the year. For some its a victory, for others, a shame. What happened and why?
With a reputation for its occasional controversial posts, there was always a feeling that the Timberwolves’ Brazil account on X was treading a fine line. But its sudden disappearance back in January left many wondering just what happened. Let’s look back at the events that led to its demise.
Timberwolves’ X account set up by fan in Brazil
The Timberwolves Brasil account on X (formerly Twitter) - if you didn’t already know - caused quite a stir among NBA fans in recent times. It was actually a fan account set up by 30-year-old community manager Rodrigo Barbosa in Rio de Janeiro and not affiliated to the franchise, despite having a blue tick and over 117,000 followers. Known for its graphic and crude posts, the account polarized opinions with many seeing it as good fun, while others called for it to be taken down. In terms of specifics, posts have ranged from photos and gifs of NBA mascots performing sexual acts, to lewd criticism of players and coaches.
Timberwolves’ Brazil X account goes down
On Friday 12 January, details of a problem with the account started to emerge. Images appeared to display an error message that was displayed when attempting to access the account. It read: “Something went wrong. Try again.”
It later transpired that the account had in fact been suspended which suggests it will not return. Some believe that the owner of the account itself has deactivated it. Again, there has been no official announcement as to what occurred but whatever the case, the Timberwolves’ Brazil account on X remains inaccessible. You can see some of the fallout below:
Some didn’t see it the same way as you’ll note below:
It has since emerged that the account was suspended after causing personal conflicts in Barbosa’s family.
“I made the account for Timberwolves fans in Brazil, that was always my goal,” Barbosa told Rolling Stone back in December. “It started two years ago, when I had the idea to post a wolf video whenever the Timberwolves won. My followers liked it and I decided to ‘increase the possibilities’ of wolf videos. Some videos I found on the internet, others my followers send to me. I decide which one to post basically on victory day.
“I only look for funny videos that have wolves in them. Just that. I always thought they were ‘funny wolf videos.’ I had no idea there was a community (or fetishes) about this. Timberwolves wins are my fetish. My only fetish!” he explained at the time.